| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: and said to the prince, gratefully:
"Thank you very much, my master! The fall is hurting me delightfully.
I almost feel as if I could cry, and that would be joy indeed!"
"Well," answered the prince, with a sigh, "I see I must get my hands
greased after all"--for the black's body had really been greased to
enable him to elude the grasp of his opponents.
But Marvel made a quick leap and seized the Wrestler firmly around the
waist. The next moment, to the astonishment of all, the black man
flew swiftly into the air, plunged through one of the open windows
high up in the wall, and disappeared from view. When the king and his
people again turned their wondering eyes upon the prince he was wiping
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: the number of their names.
NUM 3:41 And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead
of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the
Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children
of Israel.
NUM 3:42 And Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the
firstborn among the children of Israel.
NUM 3:43 And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a
month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty
and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen.
NUM 3:44 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: greed for peace and ease and the safe-guarding of
property rights. That the fine things of life--art,
music and literature--had thriven upon such enervating
ideals he strenuously denied, insisting, rather, that
they had endured in spite of civilization.
"Show me the fat, opulent coward," he was wont to say,
"who ever originated a beautiful ideal. In the clash
of arms, in the battle for survival, amid hunger and
death and danger, in the face of God as manifested in
the display of Nature's most terrific forces, is born
all that is finest and best in the human heart and
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: the noblest songs on earth - the 'Iliad,' which tells us of
the siege of Troy, and Achilles' quarrel with the kings; and
the 'Odyssey,' which tells the wanderings of Odysseus,
through many lands for many years, and how Alcinous sent him
home at last, safe to Ithaca his beloved island, and to
Penelope his faithful wife, and Telemachus his son, and
Euphorbus the noble swineherd, and the old dog who licked his
hand and died. We will read that sweet story, children, by
the fire some winter night. And now I will end my tale, and
begin another and a more cheerful one, of a hero who became a
worthy king, and won his people's love.
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